Hebrews 10: The Righteous Will Live by Faith, Steadfast in Trials

Introduction

"However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" Michel Wuillot opens his message at the Église évangélique du Réveil in Lausanne (Riponne) with this question from Jesus, asked right after the parable of the widow who keeps coming back to the judge day after day (Luke 18:8). A few months ago, he had encouraged the church not to grow slack in prayer. This time, he wants to go further.

We all know that having faith matters. But the preacher asks another question: "It's good to have faith, it's good to have had faith, but am I still living by faith?" The title of the message is simple: the righteous will live by faith. And with a smile he warns that he is going to "hammer" this thought home to break through hard heads.

The journey moves from communion with the Holy Spirit to faith as a language of love, then to the question of the timing of God's answer. It ends with a very concrete definition of faith: staying steadfast in your feelings toward God, whatever happens, without letting doubt take root.

Outline of the message

1. The righteous will live by faith, not by their own strength

Hebrews 10:38: "But the righteous will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him." Paul writes it as well in Romans 1:17, taking up the revelation received by the prophet Habakkuk (Habakkuk 2:4).
The righteous person lives neither by their own strength nor by their own intelligence. The life we choose to live with Jesus in this world is meant to reflect our faith in him.
Living by faith means choosing to live in communion with Jesus: "I take his hand, and now, Jesus, I let you lead me wherever you want to lead me."
The previous Friday, in Geneva, two young people who had come for the first or second time gave their lives to Jesus. It is always beautiful to see people, young or not so young, open their lives to the Lord and want to move forward with him.

2. The Holy Spirit is not a trophy

The day we believed, the Holy Spirit came to live in us, and Paul says we became his temple. But what does "the Holy Spirit lives in me" mean in practice?
Some received him as a trophy: you put him in a corner, look at him with a little smile and keep telling yourself, "I'm good, I'm strong." Yes, the one who is in us is greater than the one who is in the world, but be careful not to lock yourself into a world apart, cut off from real life, and simply become more proud.
Others see God's presence as a jacuzzi or a medicine: a moment to feel better when things are not going well, a worship song found online, and then back to living life as you please.
What the Holy Spirit gives is communion with God in his fullness, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When you are in a relationship with someone, you no longer live as you did before: "When I was single, I could live like a single man, but when I got married, my life changed completely, and I don't regret it."
The purpose of this communion is to give God total influence over your life, to let him take his place as Lord, king and guide, so that it is no longer you who live, but he who lives in you.
The preacher shares a recent revelation: the Holy Spirit fills all the space so that I die to myself, but not so that I stay dead. He takes up all the room to make room for the new creation. "It is no longer the fleshly Michel, it is the renewed Michel, the child of God who walks with Jesus."

3. A communion for the Father's business, lived out in the body

This communion is not given to us to make life according to the flesh easier or to satisfy our desires. It is there so that we may know and pursue God's interests, "the Father's business." Do you truly know God's plan for your life?
"Church of Lausanne Riponne, I am seriously asking myself this question: to what extent are we living by faith in Jesus Christ?" During our days, do we take a moment to think about our brothers and sisters, and about what God expects of us?
Often we get up in the morning forgetting who we are. Before being a mechanic, a doctor or an architect, you are first a child of God, an ambassador of Christ, a kind of "undercover agent" whom God sends wherever he wants so that you shine with his light.
What God does in your personal life is tied to what he does in his church. A hand cannot live independently of the body: to reach its full potential, it must stay in unity with the other members. Many children of God never reach their potential because they do not understand that they are fully part of the body.
The first church was together every day, in the temple or in homes. They ate with simplicity, shared the Word and prayed together (Acts 2:46). As a great evangelist once said, the prayer meeting is how you take the temperature of a church.
"It's not always pleasant to hear these things." But living by faith will never lead us to live alone, without communion with our brothers and sisters.

4. Faith, a language of love

Without faith, communion with God is no longer possible. In 1 Corinthians 13:13, Paul names three things that remain: faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love. Love is the pillar, the source from which everything flows.
Galatians 5:6 speaks of "faith working through love," and Romans 5:5 says hope does not disappoint us because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Faith and hope spring from love: they are languages of love.
The preacher takes up the five love languages of pastor and marriage counselor Gary Chapman: words of affirmation, quality time (like the time he is about to spend with his wife for their 24th wedding anniversary), gifts, acts of service (with a humorous example about the trash his children are slow to take out, and the dishwasher) and physical touch, a hand on the shoulder.
Many misunderstandings, in marriage as in teamwork at church, come from not understanding the other person. But in the relationship between a child of God and God, faith must be the universal language.
"There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism" (Ephesians 4:5-6). There are different ways of believing, but there are no different ways of approaching God and pleasing him. Without faith it is impossible to please him (Hebrews 11:6). Only the faith that comes from the word of Christ is legitimate before God.
It is by grace that we are saved, through faith (Ephesians 2:8). And Jesus teaches that faith moves mountains: "Have faith in God" (Mark 11:22-23). Living by faith means living the impossible, seeing God do what you cannot do by your own strength.

5. Born of the Spirit, an intimacy that becomes natural

Jesus tells Nicodemus: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6-8). The child of God is a man or a woman in intimate communion with the Spirit of God.
The human spirit and the Spirit of God become so close that it is hard to tell where God ends and the child of God begins. What you do, you do because God is doing it, and it becomes natural.
You no longer use foul language, and you spontaneously stand up to praise the Lord. In a trial, instead of weeping, you lift your hands: "Lord, I believe in you."
The world shows its "god," with a small g, through the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21). The child of God shows a God of love, who saves, frees, delivers, heals, forgives and gives eternal life.
"We have limited God so much." When a miracle is slow in coming, we give up quickly and look for a human solution. Maybe if you had persevered in God's presence, you would have seen his power.

6. Faith often needs time

Being with God is "better than good." And faith carries something very encouraging: God answers our prayers.
Faith that comes from the Word and the Holy Spirit always receives an answer, but God remains the master of the timing. Often, God's children do not see the answer because they are impatient.
The great challenge for the church is to remain continually in God's presence, not just for the length of a meeting. Paul says: "Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:16-17).
After prayer, what do you do? You run into someone, you get angry, you let yourself be influenced, you spend five hours in front of Netflix, and you get robbed of what God had begun while you were praying.
Staying connected does not mean walking with your eyes closed: "Open your eyes before crossing the street!" The preacher says he often prays in tongues under his breath, in the street or in the car, and asks as he watches people: "Lord, do you have something to tell me for this person?"

7. Having faith in God: staying steadfast in your feelings

When Jesus says "Have faith in God," the preacher gives this definition: putting your faith in God means choosing to be steadfast in your feelings toward God, whatever the circumstances, the trials or the worries of life.
It is faithfulness. In marriage, it is not a contract, where you protect yourself and get rid of the other person if they no longer meet your demands. It is a covenant: even when things don't go the way you would like, you stay present, and by your presence you can even bring about change.
Faith will always be tested. It is like a muscle: it grows under pressure, but also when it is well fed and when it rests in God's presence.
When bad news arrives, our emotions try every time to overthrow our faith. Weak faith lets itself be carried away by emotions, and little faith turns into doubt. "Doubt is a poison. Doubt is the language of fear, but faith is the language of love." And perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18).
The one who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and tossed, and should not expect to receive anything from the Lord (James 1:6-7). By contrast, Isaiah 26:3 promises: "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you."
Before the Word, we must be like a child who simply believes. But in the face of trials, a child gets scared and runs away. When a man or woman of God reacts that way to every difficulty, it is a problem: the child must make room for the man of God, the woman of God that you are.
Being afraid at first is not the problem. The problem is letting doubt take root. Born of fear, it then becomes the catalyst of fear, until it paralyzes you: you back away from every challenge, you stop committing, and you do not live the victories the Lord had planned.
The preacher concludes with Joshua 1:6-9: "Be strong and courageous." Do not let the words of Jesus depart from your mouth; meditate on them day and night and declare them, because that is how you feed your faith. "Don't be afraid. Don't be dismayed, for Yahweh your God is with you wherever you go."
In the closing prayer, he invites those who live in fear and intimidation to stand up and ask forgiveness for missed opportunities without staying in guilt, and reminds us that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and self-control (2 Timothy 1:7).

Key takeaways

Having had faith is not enough: the righteous are called to live by faith, every day, by giving their hand to Jesus.
The Holy Spirit is neither a trophy nor a medicine. He gives us a communion that gives God total influence over our lives and joins us to the body of Christ.
Faith is a language of love, and it is the universal language of the child of God before their Father.
God always answers faith, but he remains the master of the timing. Impatience and broken communion make us miss the answer.
Having faith in God means staying steadfast in your feelings toward him whatever the circumstances, without letting doubt take root.

Personal application

Are you still living by faith today, or are you content with the memory of the faith you once had?
How do you treat the presence of the Holy Spirit: as a trophy, as a remedy for bad days, or as a communion that changes the way you live?
During your day, do you take a moment to think about the Father's business and about your brothers and sisters in the church?
After your time of prayer, what most often interrupts your communion with God?
In which trial have you let your emotions or doubt take over, and what does "staying steadfast in your feelings" toward God mean for you this week?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between having faith and living by faith?

For Michel Wuillot, it is good to have faith and to have had faith, but the question is whether you are still living by faith. Living by faith means choosing communion with Jesus, giving him your hand and letting him lead you where he wants, instead of living by your own strength or your own intelligence.

What does it mean to have faith in God according to this message?

Drawing on Mark 11:22 and Isaiah 26:3, the preacher defines faith in God as the choice to be steadfast in your feelings toward God, whatever the circumstances, trials or worries of life. It is covenant faithfulness, as in marriage, and not a contract you walk away from when the other party no longer meets your expectations.

Why is doubt called a poison?

Doubt is born of fear. Being afraid at first is not the problem, but if you let doubt take root, it becomes a catalyst for fear, until it paralyzes you. You then back away from every challenge, stop committing, and miss the victories the Lord had planned. James 1:6-7 says the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea.